Beauty spot: Garcia Tamjidi crafts Kendo’s San Francisco offices
![New, purpose-designed offices in San Francisco](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/y3zNYKL9SZMZM48to6zGyD-415-80.jpg)
When Kendo, an LVMH beauty brand incubator based in San Francisco, needed to majorly expand into a new space, the company turned to local firm Garcia Tamjidi Architecture Design, known for its ethereally modernist work on projects as varied as the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, residential jewel boxes dotted across the bay area and multiple tech offices for both startups and established firms. The people of Kendo, which is currently focused on six pillar companies – Marc Jacobs Beauty, Kat Von D Beauty, Ole Henriksen, Bite Beauty, Formula X and Fenty Beauty by Rihanna – hadn’t ever worked in a space dedicated to and designed explicitly for them. That’s where Garcia Tamjidi came in.
'They’re not retail, but we imported that retail look to energise the internal team,' says Farid Tamjidi. That retail look is centred on a massive, shiny black centrepiece of a long glowing table that appears in the reception area and is repeated in the cafe area directly opposite (a hallmark of the project is long views and repeated motifs). Before moving into their own full-floor office space, Kendo product managers were squeezed together, displaying products wherever they could – on conference tables, in spare hallways, on desks. Now, with the combination of this endlessly long table and the spotlit illumination that elevates products like the Kat Von D Beauty lipstick tubes and the Marc Jacobs Beauty limited edition nail lacquer, it feels like there’s something to really look at.
The architects worked on creating an office environment with an invigorating 'retail look'
'We also brought in graphics that reconfirm their cultural identity,' says Michael Garcia. Those graphic, massive print-outs glued to the wall (so they’re changeable along with the trends) help to give a sense of narrative momentum to the otherwise colour-neutral – black, beige, and white dominate – open office desking. Further pops are provided by bright flashes of coloured furniture in the lounge areas and small meeting spaces. 'You’re looking at patterns of windows and colours of glass on all four sides,' Tamjidi says of the views of downtown San Francisco that are visible from the clear floor-length spans. 'A lot of it was hard architecture. Silver, smoke grey glass panelling, a very colour-neutral field of view. We thought it’d be a good juxtaposition to have a pop of colour in the foreground.'
That connection of inside and outside, and bright colours and soft neutrals, is perfect for a company devoted to incubating beauty brands that deal with, essentially, exactly all of that.
Large graphics and carefully selected furniture provide vivid pops of colour for the interiors
A shiny black centrepiece in the form of a long glowing table appears in the reception area and is repeated in the cafe area directly opposite
These bright colours create a welcome contrast to the more neutrally-hued hard architecture details
INFORMATION
For more information, visit the Garcia Tamjidi website
Wallpaper* Newsletter + Free Download
For a free digital copy of August Wallpaper*, celebrating Creative America, sign up today to receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories
-
Commune’s sustainable personal care products look ‘quite unlike anything else’
Commune’s Somerset-made products stand out in the sustainable skincare crowd. Madeleine Rothery speaks with the brand’s co-founders Kate Neal and Rémi Paringaux
By Madeleine Rothery Published
-
‘Hedonistic and avant-garde’: Rabanne’s Julian Dossena on the legacy of the chainmail 1969 bag
Paco Rabanne’s 1969 chainmail handbag encapsulates the late designer’s futuristic, space-age style. Current creative director Julien Dossena tells Wallpaper* about the bag’s particular pleasures
By Jack Moss Published
-
Postcard from Paris: Olympic fever takes over the streets
On the eve of the opening ceremony of Paris 2024, our correspondent shares her views from the streets of the capital about how the event is impacting the urban landscape.
By Minako Norimatsu Published
-
IM Pei's Everson Museum of Art gets a modern makeover
The East Wing of the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, NY has been given a contemporary refresh by emerging Los Angeles studio MILLIØNS
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Black Modernism’s lesser-known, at-risk architecture gems gain a lifeline
Conserving Black Modernism announces vital funding to save and preserve overlooked and endangered buildings by African American architects and designers
By Bridget Downing Published
-
Step into the Blanton Museum of Art's reimagined public realm by Snøhetta in Austin
Blanton Museum of Art in Austin, Texas is completed and reveals its reimagined public realm and plaza designed by Snøhetta
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
This New York Townhouse renovation is a lesson in contemporary minimalism
TenBerke’s carefully considered New York townhouse is the reimagining of a century-old Manhattan structure that reframes vertical living
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Visit The Frost House, a lesser-known modernist architecture marvel in Michigan City
The Frost House is a lesser-known midcentury architecture gem in Michigan City, Indiana; we took the tour as the property goes on the market
By Audrey Henderson Published
-
Broadway designer Scott Pask’s Arizona retreat is a scene-stealing discovery
Scott Pask invites us inside his Arizona retreat, nestled in the foothills overlooking Tucson – a place to reboot, recharge and commune with nature
By Michael Webb Published
-
Upstate New York retreat Ridge House evokes land art
Ridge House in upstate New York, the work of Brooklyn-based studio Worrell Yeung, is at one with the surrounding countryside
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Rafael de Cárdenas’ first ground-up project is a forever home with waterfront views and hidden treasures
Rafael de Cárdenas reveals his latest completed project in the Pacific Northwest, a family home of calming spaces that bleed the outside in, and ten years in the making
By Ellie Stathaki Published